A: Are you dreaming of summertime landscaping projects? Yep, we are too. With the cold season upon us, there’s nothing like some backyard pond planning to warm up those chilly days and get excited about diving in to your favorite hobby.

Whether you plan to build a half-acre pond with a recirculating stream and fish, expand on your existing feature, or install a petite 200-gallon in-ground aquatic water garden, you should consider these points as you design your backyard dream:

Start with a Budget

First of all, consider what kind of money you want to spend and develop a project budget. In most cases, the larger the water feature, the more expensive it will cost—but some of those top-of-the-line accessories for smaller features can cost quite a bit, too. If you need some help, call a pond-building professional in your area who can assess your needs and determine your budget.

Look for Higher Ground

Next, take a close look at your landscape and plan to position your pond on a high spot rather than a low spot. It might seem logical to locate your water feature in a valley, but it’s actually better to situate it on higher ground. This will prevent rainwater from running into your pond, which can cause water clarity and algae growth problems later on.

Size It Right

While you’re inspecting your outdoor space, consider what sized water feature will realistically fit within your existing landscaping. Do you have a large yard and want to go big? Do you have a small space that’s perfect for a preformed pond with a small fountain? Perhaps the area is best suited for a pondless stream or waterfall. Many seasoned pond hobbyists have admitted that, in retrospect, they wish they had gone bigger with their initial designs …

Consider Your Audience

Who will be enjoying your water feature? When planning your backyard pond, keep your audience in mind. If you have young kids running around the yard and safety is an issue, a pondless waterfall with no open body of water might be a good choice. If, however, you and your family have a passion for aquatic plants or fish, it would make sense to go with a traditional pond.

Go with a Kit

As you’re planning your backyard dream pond, make the process easier by buying a pond kit, which comes with everything you’ll need. Different kits are designed for different types of ponds. Here are three that we recommend:

For a large waterfall with big sound: The RapidFlo™ Ecosystem Pond Kit is ideal for those who want a large waterfall or stream, lots of sound to drown out nearby noise, and a system with the capacity to deal with heavy debris from nearby trees.

For fish lovers: The AllClear™ Ecosystem Pond Kit is designed for hobbyists who want their pond to be all about their fish, not a waterfall. It works well in yards with full sun exposure and few falling leaves.

For easy maintenance: The Cascading Falls Pondless Pond Kit is perfect for busy people who want to enjoy the sights and sounds of running water but have little time to maintain a traditional water feature. It’s also well suited for small yards or families with children.

Have Fun with It!

The most important thing to know about planning a pond of your dreams is that you should have a great time doing it. You’ll enjoy this backyard feature for years, so do your research, think through these points, and spend time designing something that you’ll love!

Pond Talk: When you built your first pond or water feature, what inspired your design?

Q: I heard you can lose fish during the winter. How do I prevent a winter fish kill?

Jon – Little Suamico, WI

A: Imagine being cooped up all winter long in a room with no ventilation and no fresh air. Pretty claustrophobic, right? Now add the stench of decaying garbage and other waste buildup … it’s likely you wouldn’t last until spring.

It’s a similar situation with your fish.

In colder climates that freeze over the winter, decomposing vegetation and waste beneath the ice layer releases toxic gases that build up, displacing the oxygen that the fish need to survive. When that O2 is replaced with ammonia and other harmful gases, the result can be a winter fish kill.

An Airmax® Aeration System sized for your lake or pond moves the water below the frozen surface, which keeps an air hole open in the ice. This ventilation allows the harmful gases to escape while bringing in fresh oxygen for your fish. The aeration also injects oxygen into the water via the bubbles that come out of the diffuser or air stones.

Provide Year-Round Oxygen

For the health of your fish, we recommend you run an aeration system year-round—unless you plan to use the pond for winter activities, like ice skating or hockey, that require a solid and safe sheet of ice. In that case, follow the instructions in your product manual to safely turn off your system.

Create a Warm Zone

If you plan to run your system year-round, move the diffuser plates into shallower water during the winter months. This will allow your fish to hunker down in your pond’s warmer depth for the winter. It will also prevent the rare “super cooling” effect, in which the water temperature dips below freezing and over chills your fish.

Pond Talk: Have you ever experienced a winter fish kill? What changes did you make to prevent it from happening again?

A: Your pond’s filter media—the Matala® Filter Media Pads, The Pond Guy® BioBalls™ or Bio-Ribbon that house your beneficial bacteria—will need a little attention going into the winter. You won’t need your filter media during the cold months, but you should inspect it, clean it and purchase replacements parts before you start your water feature up again in the spring. Here’s a rundown of what to do:

Filter Media Pads: Pull out your filter media pads from your pond’s filtration system, waterfall box and skimmer, thoroughly rinse off the debris with your garden hose, and look for frayed edges, holes, large deposits of solid debris or other signs of damage. Plan to replace worn pads as necessary in the spring. You can choose from specially coated Matala® Filter Media Pads, which come in four different densities for your unique filtration needs, or cost-effective rolls of filter media that can be cut to fit and are ideal for waterfall boxes and skimmers.

BioBalls and Other Loose Filter Media: If you use secondary filtration, like The Pond Guy® BioBalls™, Bio-Ribbon, blocks or other loose filtration media that’s kept in a mesh bag, remove it all from your filter or waterfall box after you shut down your waterfall, rinse the bag and its contents thoroughly, and check the bag for holes or worn areas. Replace the bag if necessary in the spring.

After your filter media is rinsed and inspected, you can store them for winter in the filter, waterfall box or skimmer. The filter pads, BioBalls™ and other media will survive just fine outside, even in freezing temperatures. If desired, you can also remove them and stow them inside a garage or basement.

A: Unfortunately, it’s tough to give you a definitive answer. The growth pattern of aquatic weeds and algae really depend on where a particular pond or lake is located. Weed growth in a Florida pond, for instance, will be different from weed growth in a Minnesota pond!

In general, however, you can expect to see different pond weeds pop up at different times of year based on environmental temperature, just like the weeds in your lawn. If your pond or lake freezes over, the perennial weeds will typically die back in the winter and re-emerge in the spring. Some plants, however, will continue to grow throughout the cold season, though at a much slower rate than you’d see in the warmer summer months.

Trouble surfaces when water temperatures drop to the point where your algaecides and herbicides become ineffective – but the weeds continue to grow. Algae Defense®, for example, stops working when the water is below 60° Fahrenheit, and the beneficial bacteria in PondClear™ slow down to almost a stop when temps fall below 50°F.

So what can you do?

When the chemicals and bacteria are no longer working for the winter, it’s time to turn to Pond Logic® Pond Dye. An effective year-round treatment, Pond Dye shades the water and reduces the amount of sunlight reaching the weeds and algae growing at the bottom of your lake. Less sunlight means fewer weeds, regardless of the temperature or time of year.

Pond Logic® Pond Dye comes in two formulations: Easy-to-use packets and quarts of concentrated liquid. To use the packets, which come in Nature’s Blue™ and Black DyeMond™, simply toss several in water at various locations around your pond or lake. The packet will dissolve and the dye will disperse throughout the water. To use the concentrated liquid, which comes in Nature’s Blue™, Twilight Blue™ and Black DyeMond™, pour the dye in several spots along the pond’s edge. There’s no mixing required.

If wintertime weeds are taking over your pond, consider adding Pond Dye. Not only will it shade your water and hinder weed growth, but it will also add to the aesthetics of your landscape.

Q: I’m not running my waterfall over the winter. How do I shut it down?

Valerie – Smithsburg, MD

A: You want to shut down your waterfall for the season? You’re not alone. When the outdoor temperatures dip, most people don’t spend a lot of time lounging outside by their pond enjoying the sound of running water.

Though a pond with ice formations can create a beautiful scene, shutting down your waterfall or stream when it’s not in use for the winter is a great way to save some money, prolong the life of your equipment, and prevent ice dams from forming and potentially draining your pond.

Putting your waterfall to bed for the winter can be done in just a couple of hours – or less if you have a helper. Here, we’ve outlined four simple steps to make the chore easy:

First, remove the pump from your pond. Store it in a 5-gallon bucket filled with water in a place that will not freeze, like your garage or basement, so the seals do not dry out.

Next, blow out your tubing with an air compressor. Though most tubing will be OK if water freezes in it, it’s still a good idea to blast away all the gunk and debris that could be in there. Don’t forget to cap it off to ensure no water or debris enters the tubing.

If your pump is in a skimmer box, drain the water to slightly below the weir door. You can also place a milk carton or 2-Liter bottle about ¼ filled into the skimmer. This will alleviate some ice pressure on the skimmer walls.

If you have biological filter media in your waterfall box, spray the filter media off with a hose to remove built-up gunk, and pump the water out of waterfall box and scrub it down. The filter media will be fine stored in the waterfall box for the winter.

Because your waterfall will be turned off and not oxygenating the water for your fish, don’t forget to run an aeration system. Airmax® PondAir™ Aeration Kit is ideal for infusing O2 into ponds up to 2,000 gallons; Airmax® KoiAir™ Aeration Kit handles ponds up to 16,000 gallons. Both are energy-efficient and can be run 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Have you ever run your waterfall or stream all winter long? What was your experience?

Algae Defense®: You can stop using this algae killer when the water dips below 60° Fahrenheit. Though you might see green growth during the winter, the active ingredients in Algae Defense® are ineffective at lower temperatures.

PondClear™ & MuckAway™: The beneficial bacteria that make up PondClear™ and MuckAway™ won’t work well when the water temperatures are lower than 50°F. Save the little muck and debris munchers for spring when the sun has warmed your pond or lake.

EcoBoost™: Formulated to bind suspended organics, EcoBoost™ helps to clear water, enhances beneficial bacteria and provides trace minerals to fish. It has no temperature restrictions, so it can be used all year round!

Pond Dye: Pond Dye can also be used year-round to shade your pond or lake, and bring beauty and color to your landscape. If it’s too cold to dump the Pond Dye concentrated liquid in the water, try using our Pond Dye Packets. You simply drop the easy-to-use water-soluble packets in various spots in your lake and in a short time the color will diffuse throughout the water.

Hopefully this has “cleared up” when and how to use the products in ClearPAC™.

Pond Talk: What is your favorite product in the ClearPAC® or ClearPAC® PLUS?

A: You probably spent a pretty penny on your pond equipment, and so there’s no doubt you want to make that gear last as many seasons as possible. Certain components will survive longer if you remove them from your pond during the winter, including:

All-In-One Filtration Units: This submersible mechanical, biological and ultraviolet filtration system should be pulled from your water feature and stowed away for the winter. Don’t forget to remove the mag-drive pump from the unit and store it in water in a place that will not freeze.

Pressurized Filters: As with the All-In-One Filtration Units, plan to remove your pressurized filter and put it up for the cold-weather season. Doing so will prolong the life of your unit’s gaskets, washers and other temperature-sensitive parts.

Pumps: Whether your pump feeds a waterfall, fountain or some other decorative item in your pond, it will need to be removed and stored in water in a spot that won’t freeze, like a heated garage or basement.

UV Clarifiers: If your ultraviolet clarifier is separate from your mechanical and biological filtration system, be sure to remove it from your water feature and store it until spring, when you should plan to replace the bulb.

Ion Clarifiers: String algae won’t likely be growing in the winter, so you can disconnect your ion clarifier and keep it stashed until the warm weather arrives.

Once all of your gear is removed and stored away, blow out the water lines with your air compressor and cap the ends until spring. You wouldn’t want that water to freeze and crack your pipes!

Add Winter Gear

While you’re doing some winterizing chores, now is the perfect time to add an aerator to your pond to keep the water oxygenated for your finned pals during the winter months.

Airmax® PondAir™ Aeration Kit is designed for water gardens up to 2,000 gallons. It’s powered by an energy-efficient diaphragm compressor and includes an airflow control valve, air stones and flexible black vinyl air tubing.

Airmax® KoiAir™ Aeration Kit is designed to aerate medium and large water gardens and koi ponds up to 16,000 gallons. It’s powered by an energy-efficient dual diaphragm SilentAir™ aeration pump and includes a diffuser plate for maximum oxygen uptake and a weighted airline.

Completing these simple tasks will prolong the life of your pond gear and ensure your fish and other pond critters stay happy and healthy all winter long.